


Confess and be hanged.

by blueberry



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Dark, Gen, Missing Scene, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-17 00:45:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2290784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueberry/pseuds/blueberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The trial of Mukuro Rokudo, after his capture by the Vindice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confess and be hanged.

**Author's Note:**

> Title and inspiration from the [31_days](http://31-days.livejournal.com) theme for 11 Feb. 2008.

Mukuro Rokudo smiled as the Vindice recited the list of his crimes. The court recorder noted the detail for its unusualness; the expression was oddly demure, and yet Mukuro did not show any other signs of possible insanity.  
  
After initial and truly, incredibly violent resistance during the arrest, he had walked quietly alongside the Vindice as they led him into imprisonment. By all accounts he had acted with nothing but quiet compliance since then. As he sat alone in the centre of the trial chamber, his head hung as if he felt guilt - and now he admitted to the same.  
  
"Murder?" the Vindice on the judges' platform chorused quietly in their machine-distorted voices. "Men, women, and children, without discretion and with no care but your own ends?"  
  
"Yes," said Mukuro, heading dipping briefly. The tiny smile stayed in place.  
  
"Grand theft - of money and goods, most often targeting respected mafia families?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"The use of the forbidden Possession Bullet, created by the outcast Estraneo family, on numerous occasions?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"The unrestrained use of equally reprehensible skills given you by the Estraneo family?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Though our investigations into this matter were exhaustive, we will allow you this chance to state: Were you in any instance coerced into the actions you took?"  
  
The only sound from the bench where Mukuro sat was the chink of chains. He took the lengths of chain that bound his hand and feet in balled-up fists, and breathed in sharp exhalations from his nose. "All those actions are mine."  
  
The Vindice retired to confer in a side chamber where the court recorder was not permitted to follow. They were not gone long; doubtless they'd only needed to word their judgment, since the information had been freely laid out before them.  
  
"Mukuro Rokudo. Though you have taken on the burden of your crimes, you have done so without proportionate remorse, any claim to mitigating circumstances, or offered any deals that might work to the benefit of the allied families or those you have wronged. Even within our world, some things cannot be condoned."  
  
"Yes," said Mukuro, so softly that the court recorder guessed that he spoke by experience and intuition, rather than by anything audible or by reading the faint movement of his lips.  
  
"You are sentenced to execution. This sentence will be carried out at 17:00 on September first. Until this time you will be imprisoned within this facility in solitary confinement."  
  
The man on the bench went still, and - his smile broadened.  
  
Then he sighed deeply and looked nothing but tired. He put his face in his hands, awkwardly bent due to the restraint of the chains, and sat that way as the Vindice rose and gathered around him. He was led away by his captors and judges, now his warders, and soon to be his executioners.

 

* * *

 

They'd given him months. Wasn't that too long? A lot of plans could be made between now and then. Should he ask them to move the execution date forward?  
  
He leaned back against the cool stone and stretched his arms in a long movement of physical relief. The Vindice had unchained him on locking him in his cell. It was more than he'd hoped for. No ... he couldn't ask them to move the date. They weren't likely to listen and might regard it as the taunting Mukuro was famous for.  
  
And besides, he couldn't get the words out. Feeling the breath cross his lips made even him, shadow of the man he had once been, pause to say something like _kill me_. He'd wait. It would give him time to get used to the strange sensation of relief.  
  
Lancia wished a little that Ken and Chikusa had been at his trial. Then they could have seen what might become of the real Mukuro if the Vindice caught on to the trick, and they might have grown afraid and thought better of what he can only describe as worship.  
  
Those two wouldn't let out the secret of his identity since it would put the Vindice on Mukuro's trail. Hopefully the rest of the gang would also continue to call him Mukuro while they were all imprisoned here. That coward Birds might let it slip... Lancia shook his head, because this was irony: Right now he was glad that there was hardly anyone left who knew his name.  
  
 _Mukuro Rokudo_ , he thought, _Mukuro..._ Then he put his fingers on the curve of his lips with surprise. It had been so long ... years. It had been years since that name made him smile.


End file.
